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Thursday, February 23, 2012

For this installment of my GiTD coverage I want to chat about the armies. The Gathering is an event that prides itself on great looking games. We have already look at the first half of the great looking game equation - the tables. Now it is time for the armies. The Gathering has a full painted army requirement which you just don't see very much. In addition the armies are graded on theme. Because appearance and theme actually entail significant points for the overall score you see some really amazing armies and stunning painting.

The appearance standards are so high that my Dwarf army I painted last summer for this event, and I am very proud of how it turned out, scored an average score for appearance. The level of detail on the top armies was really stunning. The really sad thing is that I only managed a few crappy cellphone pictures of a few of the armies and I completely missed some of the best. (Hopefully Tim will post some better pictures of all the armies)

This year had a very diverse array of armies. The format for this year was Good vs. Evil with each player choosing to play Good or Evil and bringing one 600 point army. Match-ups were all Good vs Evil regardless of the overall standings. I think this really helped inspire people to build and play interesting armies.

Then there are the games that have been retired. Not all of these are bad. In fact some are really great. The reasons for retirement are varied.

Wings of Glory

Kings of War

The Great WarEmpire of the DeadClash of EmpiresLord of the Rings:SBGWarhammer Ancient BattlesBattleground World War 2Arc of FireJohnny Reb IIICrossfireRules of EngagementRate of FireLegends of the High SeasNecromundaWaterlooLegends of the Old West